Kamakura period
Historical periods鎌倉時代 ・ Reading: Kamakura jidai
Definition
Warriors take power
After victory in the Genpei War, Minamoto no Yoritomo established Japan's first shogunate at Kamakura, far from the court in Kyoto. The warrior capital gained its own great monuments: Tsurugaoka Hachimangū shrine at its heart, and in 1252 the bronze Great Buddha of Kamakura, which has sat in the open air since its hall was washed away centuries ago. The Mongol invasions of 1274 and 1281, broken partly by storms remembered as kamikaze, defined the era's final decades.
New Buddhism for everyone
Almost every major school of Japanese Buddhism practiced today was founded in this single era. Hōnen taught simple trust in the nenbutsu and founded Jōdo-shū; his student Shinran carried it further into Jōdo Shinshū, now Japan's largest tradition. Eisai and Dōgen brought Rinzai and Sōtō Zen from China, and Zen's discipline made it the faith of the samurai. Nichiren preached exclusive devotion to the Lotus Sutra. Faith became something ordinary people could practice, not just monks and aristocrats.
Common questions
- Which Buddhist schools were founded in the Kamakura period?
Jōdo-shū (Hōnen), Jōdo Shinshū (Shinran), Rinzai Zen (Eisai), Sōtō Zen (Dōgen), Nichiren-shū (Nichiren), and Ji-shū (Ippen), which together account for most Buddhist temples in Japan today.
- Why did Zen appeal to the samurai?
Zen emphasized direct experience, discipline, and composure in the face of death, values that resonated with warrior life. The Kamakura and later Kyoto shogunates became great patrons of Zen monasteries.
- Why is the Great Buddha of Kamakura outdoors?
The bronze statue at Kōtoku-in, cast around 1252, originally sat inside a hall. The building was destroyed by storms and a tsunami in the fifteenth century and was never rebuilt, so the Buddha has meditated in the open air ever since.